Sony SmartWatch 3

The SmartWatch 3 is Sony’s first entry into the Android Wear device space, following many years of releasing various smartwatches—many under the same SmartWatch moniker—that never saw much mainstream success. The device is in the middle range of the spectrum price wise, and its looks and capabilities arguably are in line with its cost.

Many months after the initial SmartWatch 3 introduction, Sony announced a steel variant at CES 2015 to little fanfare. Both devices are identical internally, featuring an ARM A7 CPU, 512 MB of RAM, NFC, Bluetooth, and GPS. We got hands-on footage of both variants of the device when they were launched, and we were impressed with both. If the device fits your style, it’s a solid choice.

Announced at CES and spotted last week, the Huawei Watch for Women now has a Google Store listing. While not yet available for purchase, it confirms that the watch will be available to purchase in the US sooner rather than later. Additionally, the Marshmallow Android Wear update for the Sony SmartWatch 3 is finally rolling out today.

With so many companies having recently announced their new generations of Android Wear watches, there’s never been a better (or cheaper) time to try out the platform. There were many risks with trying it out before. First off, Android Wear watches weren’t that cheap. For a sibling platform with limited performance, it was a lot of money to gamble on a wrist gadget you might hate. Those same watches are now last generation, and with that, they’re much cheaper and give you an easier access point to Android Wear. Perhaps more importantly, the OS itself has come on leaps and bounds since its introduction. Now you can get a great Android Wear experience without having to fork out a ton of cash…

The SmartWatch 3 is one of a few first-gen Android Wear devices that’s still sold on the Google Store, and now Sony has published an app on the Play Store that lets you customize all of your device’s default watch faces (via Android Police).

With the app, you can customize watch face backgrounds, hands, time markers, accent colors, and more features. Additionally, you can choose “from a range of widgets” that bring information like the current date and your step count to the front of your device.

There are three basic watch faces that are new thanks to the app: Classic, Watercolor, and Sony. The first is a traditional analog face, the second sports — as you might have guessed — some colorful designs, and Sony is a very basic digital face.

To use this app, Sony says that you have to have the Android Wear companion app installed on your device, and it’s probably a good idea to make sure that you have the latest version of Android Wear installed on your device as well.

You can grab the Sony SmartWatch 3 accessory app on the Play Store for free. If you’re like me, you probably think this means a bunch of awesome new watch faces to try on other Android Wear devices. I’ll save you the time in trying; this is for the SmartWatch 3 only.